1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an occupant protection system for a vehicle which protects occupants by means of far-side airbags at the time of a side collision.
2. Description of Related Art
In a system described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-070003 (JP 2010-070003 A), airbag devices (far-side airbag devices) are respectively installed in center-side side portions, as viewed in the vehicle width direction, of respective seat backs of right and left vehicle seats disposed adjacent to each other in the vehicle width direction. The far-side airbag device inflates and deploys an airbag against the head of an occupant seated on one side (which will be called. “non-collision side”) opposite to the side on which a side collision occurs (which will be called “collision side”), such that the airbag expands toward the collision side. As a result, the head that makes an inertial movement toward the collision side due to an impact of the side collision is received and supported by the airbag.
In a far-side airbag device described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-051557 (JP 2012-051557 A), a tether joined to a seat back frame is passed through an opening formed in a non-inflation region of an airbag, and is connected to a front end of the airbag. In the far-side airbag device, the above-mentioned tether serves to control the trajectory of deployment of the airbag at the time of a side collision, and place an effective restraint on an occupant seated on the non-collision side.
In the above-described far-side airbag devices, there exists no reaction force plane that applies reaction force from the collision side to the airbag (far-side airbag) that is inflated and deployed; thus, there is room for improvement in terms of the far-side occupant restraint performance.